Dave Lefner

The year was 1992, and Dave Lefner was into his second year of college at Cal State Northridge. He had just discovered printmaking, an artistic soul mate that would stand the test of time, but for now it was the red hot “I have to have you now” kind of thing and the presses at school were all busy. So Dave improvised. He had his linoleum canvas carved into his vision – an abstracted street scene featuring a traffic light and liquor store sign. Now he needed pressure. He thought, “What is the heaviest thing I own that rolls?” That would be the “Green Bomb,” a classic 1972 Oldsmobile. Dave positioned his carved linoleum behind the back wheel, carefully placed a piece of Masonite over it and hopped into the driver’s seat. Slowly he backed up, and then rolled forward. It was a crude way of doing it, but Lefner had just made his first linocut print. It was the beginning of a long love affair.

Lefner always knew he was going to be an artist. He has a drawing tacked up on his refrigerator that he did when he was in first grade. It shows an artist at an easel, even sporting a French beret, with a caption reading “Someday I will be an artist. I will paint a lot of pictures.” “It was my first self-portrait,” Lefner laughs. He may have known what he wanted to be when he grew up, but he still had a lot of growing up to do. Born and raised in Los Angeles, in the San Fernando Valley, Lefner had a traditional suburban childhood. He went to Crespi, a Catholic all-boys prep school, where the focus was on academics and football. Lefner was a wide receiver on the 1986 Divison 1 championship team, which in a state as large as California, is no small accomplishment. Lefner admits most of his high school life was centered on football, and that high testosterone culture wasn’t exactly a Petri dish of support for a budding art career. “No, it wasn’t cultivated in high school,” Lefner remembers. “But I always had the ability to draw. I would do caricatures of the coaches and things like that.”

Once he got to college and was free from the pressure of high school expectations, Lefner began pursuing his art ambitions. His first declared major was graphic design because “it sounded like a real job,” then illustration, before finally discovering wood block printing. “There is such a craft to it. I love the flat colors and the graphic nature of it,” he says. But there was one more step in his search for artistic identity. “I discovered Picasso’s linoleum block series done in the 1950’s – reduction linocuts. That process was exactly what I was looking for.”

Reduction linocuts take woodblock prints a step further. The artist carves as he goes – carves, prints, carves some more, and prints – continuing on until the image is finished. How many cycles depends on how many colors the artist wants to include. When the print is finished, there is nothing left of the linoleum block – it has all been carved away. In fact, Dave keeps a big box full of thin linoleum strips underneath his worktable. Everything he did in 2008 is represented by what is left over. Edition sizes are protected because there is no possible way to go back in the future and reprint. The artist gets one shot to get it right. “The more I did it, the more I loved the idea that it was a mystery,” he says. “You have an idea of what you want in the end, but because it’s reversed and the image is backward and you are printing color stages you don’t really know what you are going to get in the end.” It is sometimes called the suicide method because one carving mistake even at a late stage and the whole print is ruined. Lefner loves the challenge.

For the last ten years Lefner has lived at the Brewery, which is touted as the “world’s largest artist community” – 300 lofts where artists live and work in downtown L.A. “I did think when I moved in ten years ago that it would be like the Cedar Bar in New York City. We’d be getting into fist fights arguing about aesthetics and abstract paintings,” he laughs. “It’s not like New York in the 1950’s, but its still a good energy.”

Lefner’s loft is big – two thousand square feet split between living and workspace, and every inch reflects the artist’s tastes and inspirations. It’s a visual carnival of color, texture and messaging. Artwork fills the walls, museum exhibition banners hang from the twenty-foot ceilings, and even the concrete floor is stenciled with words like beauty, truth, love, and the full American Heritage Dictionary definition of art. The kitchen area, which looks like a throwback to the 1950’s complete with black and white checkered floor and vintage refrigerator covered with cards, pictures and magnets, is separated from the living area by old windows suspended and arranged in a way that gives the illusion of a wall that doesn’t exist. The studio is located in the back half of the loft. An old, tired window air conditioner is stuffed in the bottom part of a large window, but a fan sits right next to it – a sure sign of lost effectiveness. Lefner’s prized press is pushed up against one wall, while a much smaller 1905 Vandercook proof press, rescued from the recycling bin years ago, is stashed underneath. The Vandercook was Lefner’s first press, which he doesn’t use anymore, but one look around and it’s easy to see that Lefner likes to collect things. On the opposite wall is a large wooden chest with 50 two-inch drawers filled with backward lead letters. Bought at a garage sale from a letterpress artist, it is Lefner’s newest acquisition. “I’ve always been a font nerd,” he says. “Letter press is a lost art form. Not many people do it because it takes a long time. In this day and age it’s all about the immediacy of things.” Maybe for everyone except Dave Lefner.

In many ways, exotic hairstyle aside, Lefner is a throwback – an old soul, with an appreciation for history, especially recent history. “The urban landscape will always be my muse,” he says. As a young artist, driving from The Valley into Hollywood, Lefner would admire the old neon signs. “There were these old mom and pop liquor stores in the valley. People drive by everyday and no one pays attention, but there would be this great neon sign, a little rusted and broken down, but it still casts these amazing shadows at certain times of the day.” Where most people see urban decay, Lefner sees something beautiful. As a night owl, he sleeps during the day, and works through the night with a view of the I-5 freeway through his back window. He loves it.

Dave shares his life and loft with his girlfriend of several years. Shyla is an actress and writer and despite what their chosen professions might suggest, for the most part, the couple stays out of the spotlight, choosing instead to see films in some of L.A.’s historic movie houses where “it feels like the 1920’s,” or enjoy a quiet dinner, sharing the same side of a booth, leaning into each other while reading their respective books. “I know people must look at us and think ‘how nerdy,’ but for us it’s romantic,” Dave laughs. The L.A. club scene just isn’t for them. “My mind set has always been about leaving my mark, so that’s my motivation and focus. Going out and getting drunk just isn’t part of the plan,” Dave explains. As he looks ahead, he wants to work bigger. Right now he is somewhat restricted by the size of his press. He has even researched steamrollers as a possible pressure source, but like the “Green Bomb,” it may be a tad uncontrollable, so better yet, he’d like to be invited to work with Gemini G.E.L., a well known Los Angeles print studio that recently built a giant press for Richard Serra. “I would absolutely love that,” he says. But until that happens, or he figures out another way, Lefner will continue to make prints with the same meticulous attention to detail, process and history that has always been his foundation. “The life of an artist is hard, but I’ve been blessed in the sense that I absolutely love what I do and people have responded. It is a cliché, but it’s true; you don’t choose the life, it chooses you. There is no other alternative for me other than to make art. It’s the way it is.”